HISD tax vote still uncertain

UPDATE (1:59 p.m.): We’re back to uncertainty on the tax rate vote. HISD board president Anna Eastman said it now sounds like the item will be voted on Thursday, in about three hours. This could change.

ORIGINAL: Houston school board president Anna Eastman confirmed Thursday that trustees will postpone voting on a proposed tax rate increase until Monday.

Superintendent Terry Grier had asked the board to delay the vote on the 4-cent hike because trustee Manuel Rodriguez Jr., a yes vote, planned to be absent Thursday.

Passage of the increase was in question without Rodriguez at the meeting after three trustees voted against the bigger budget in June and one budget supporter, trustee Greg Meyers, said he would not support the tax increase.

Eastman said Meyers would attend the 4 p.m. Monday meeting by video conference.

The proposed increase is $1.1967 per $100 of taxable value. Some trustees have said they won’t support the full 4-cent hike. HISD’s financial chief, Ken Huewitt, said the $1.6 billion budget could be balanced with a 3.42-cent increase.

Below is HISD’s summary of the tax options and a list of some of the major increases to the budget. The $16.5 million for low-performing schools is money to continue the Apollo school reform program. The $13.9 million for “reading and math failures” will go to non-Apollo schools with large concentrations of struggling students.